Archives
by hydranoid
Summary: A series of archived logs on interspecies missions to Earth, as archived data reveals how Prothean scientists and Council delegates experience the Human condition for the first time.
1. Prothean Archives

**Mars, 2149. Prothean Archives**

 **Translated by: Sir Arthur Lee, London, European Union.**

 **Names of Flora, Fauna and locations changed to Modern English Equivalent**

Earth has been labeled a hazard planet after the incident. Very unsurprising considering the severity of the attack. For now, we are forced to relocate to Mars for observation. Not only that, but until we can set up our equipment we have absolutely no means of viable observation of Earth. Thankfully, Revak and his team's data have been completely recovered, and, in some sense, this planet's reddish tint is rather beautiful. The lack of life here makes it a very calming place.

I believe the scenic red dunes would be the perfect place to review the recovered data. Unlike those thugs we call a military, I might actually find something non-war related.

 **FILE CORRUPTED: CONTINUE AFTER LINE 4,500**

I find that perhaps, I had been mistaken. Most of the data is war related. The inhabitants of this planet are frighteningly hostile, even more than initially thought. This begets the question of whether Revak's death really wasn't provoked on his end. Either way, there's science to be done.

From was sent back, Earth's flora and fauna is rich and immensely diverse, much more than Thessia or any planet outside the home-system. Oxygen levy-amino acid based creatures make up the vast majority of the species on Earth. A few single-celled organisms are outliers to this trend, but they demonstrate a much weaker reproductive ability than other life-forms, despite their immense resilience.

As expected before, the Earth is a very cold place relative to most bodies like Palaven, Kahje or the Orion systems. It's a staggering -10 degrees at its lower atmosphere poles. However, the equators and most place are warm enough to sustain a wide array of life. The planet demonstrates a carbon and water cycle similar to that of Virmire or Eden Prime. Nevertheless, the fauna of this planet is fascinating. The plant life is highly interconnected, and chemical receptors mark flowers linked fields apart. The variety of flowers make a wide array of beautiful colours that bare great similarity to some of the bouquets popular on the Citadel.

Now unto the more disturbing aspect of this planet. The animal life of Earth is, again, highly complicated and very diverse. Ocean life is dominated by large fish, with the Blue Whale being the largest animal recorded, 35th largest in history, and smaller fish which make an increasingly complicated food-chain. Plankton and corals dot the seas, making them rich with life. The terrestrial life, unfortunately, is different. Four legged mammals, lizards, insects and amphibians similar to the vorcha, Krogan, Rachni and Salarians respectively roam the Earth, most of whom are herbivores. These creatures are beautiful in their own right, but their cousins show disturbing promise. An offshoot of the herbivorous Old World Monkeys, these creatures show immense hostility. They are tall, skin-covered, with an anatomy similar to that of the newly-found Asari. They demonstrate intrinsic aspects of culture and sentience. Hunter-gatherer societies live in closely knit communities. They have children with an average gestation period of 9 Earth months, and raise the child until he is of hunting age after 14 Earth years. These humans are divided into two sexes, male and female. The male and female reproduce via physical intercourse, which, ultimately, leads to the birth of a child after growth inside the female mother. The mother stays behind and cares for the child whilst the father goes hunting. This seemed to stand testament to the male creature's initial apparent superiority in strength, but later data showed that women hunters were more common than believed.

These humans run and hunt quite efficiently, with an obvious adaptability for tools and art. Paintings inside caves often depict metaphorical references to the human self and the way of life. Humans typically shy away from mirrors. This was thought to be of their inability to recognise reflections, but their rather large brain sizes make it unlikely. It is far more probable that the human is considered holy according to them, and human representation, as such, a violation of that holiness. This would explain the rather unnerving cave artwork depicting hands.

Sadly, these creatures are not as cultured as initially thought. That hostility I mentioned is as dangerous than even that of Krogans. Humankind has waged a systematic war not only against a population of genetically nearly identical brothers [neandrathals], but also against themselves. Ravak followed a child to visit a tribe site. Humans have leaders, often displaying authoritarian aspects. These leaders of tribes have superseding rights to the food and luxuries of the tribe and are the ultimate authority. What surprised me is that this form of proto-fascism is countered by an innate evolutionarily instilled form of revolutionary leanings. The site, which Ravak observed, involved the ganging of the entire tribe on the leader and his exile and attempted murder. From what I could tell, the tribe was prosperous. Why they revolted is unknown. Although, the alpha leader that later took power in place of the exiled king seems to have the answer.

Human society is based on this idea of authority, revolution, and authority. I believe that evolutionarily this will ultimately either serve to create either an efficient civilisation or an efficient gang of thugs. Or, perhaps, in the human sense, both of these are interchangeable. Humanity lacks a properly defined idea of 'private property' as was introduced by the Keleks. The only thing similar to property is that of the leader, whom no one is allowed to touch. These include chalk, animal skin, and hunting equipment. Other than that, humans interchange houses and many objects with each other. Also, Humans have, as noted in the earliest files, yet to discover agriculture. Though, from what was observed, it's only a matter of time.

They are also quick to adapt. Far quicker than the Asari (who have yet to learn to count). Humans appear to have the potential for a decent lifespan, but most only life up to their early 20's in Earth years. They clearly demonstrate scientific curiosity and collective learning, as evident by Ravak's death.

The attack and theft of his weapon is one thing, considering Ravak was hardly an athlete and was taken by surprise. However, the utilisation of Prothean weaponry in such short a time is something that most other fledgling species have not yet demonstrated a capability of preforming. Even the children learned how to use the Ravak's weaponry in less than a day. The day after Ravak's death the humans had already figured out how to replace thermal canisters and have gathered a large feast of animals hunted and cooked by plasma.

From the first glance, this doesn't demonstrate a particularly hostile intent as much as it does a common xenophobia that plagues every species and an unusually strong ability to use tools. However, the specific hunting of Ravak's team and utilisation of diversion tactics for the capture of more weaponry underlines a startling discovery about human nature; they have little respect for life.

Normally, respect for life is evolutionarily harmful. However, even the most savage of brutes do not specifically harm their own kind with such hostile intent. In their eyes on can see this lacklustre gleam of lust for blood. This, of course, is hardly a scientific inquiry, but I find this planet particularly disturbing, especially after what was done to the Ravak's team after capture. In any case, back to business.

Humans, barring the tyrannicide that seems to be committed on a yearly basis, are highly hostile and suspicious of anyone barring extremely close familial relations or friends. Male relations often engage in intercourse as a sign of this close fraternity, despite the lack of reproductive value. Female relations are often marked by extreme suspicion. From a first glance, it's obvious that there are more females than males, this made most men highly desirable and most women attempt to sexually arouse the male into mating with her for life. In any case, this hostility extends to both males and females and, to a very small extent, to children. Odd unexplainable murders that seem to deter the survival prospects of humans occur rather frequently. From a survivalist perspective, unjustified Human murders, per ratio of population in a tribe, is incredibly high compared to other species.

What had surprised me most of all, is that even though this hunter-gatherer culture favours sheer strength above all else and commits so many atrocities against its fellow man, it still is blatantly disturbed by murder. Weeks, and sometimes, months, of mourning follows the death of someone whose trust has been earned, and the body is later buried underground, similar to our tradiations. Unless in a case of tyrannicide or self-defence or war against the neadrathals of neighbouring tribes, a murder of an 'innocent' man is punishable either by death or exile. Humans mourn their dead with great tenacity relative to the fact that they appear to harbour great malice towards life.

Unfortunately, they did not extend that mourning to Ravak or his team.

I'm not quite sure what they intended to do with them, but it looked like an interrogation. As they waved around their stolen technology, I began believing more and more that these humans were asking for more weapons. Prothean facial expression is remarkably similar to human facial expression. As such, I was surprised to see Protheans tortured with such force and disdain by the primitives when a clear indication of pain should've been felt.

What I am more surprised by, however, is the physical capacity of these humans. Not many species can outrun a Prothean scout. It's obvious that these humans have evolved bipedalism out of this very same purpose to outrun their prey in open grassland savannah. I doubt the scout had any shot at escaping, especially considering the rover was malfunctioning for some reason.

Ultimately, my conclusions are as follow:

Humankind is highly likely to develop civilisation.

Humankind is likely to proceed to develop an agrarian based civilisation from early observed evidence of harvesting.

Communication with the primitives is impossible at this point.

Human civilisation will develop centralised systems for maximising the powers of the alpha leader. These systems will likely collapse as revolutions become more and more frequent.

It is unknown whether humans can progress enough to develop spacecraft.

I do not doubt that they have the mental capability of utilising tools, but I doubt the stability of their societies. It seems more likely that humanity will become extinct by its own hands before it ever sees space.

On a more political note, the murder of the 250-some human tribe that killed Ravak should please the High Council for now. Though, in any case, the death of 7 Protheans from the containment team sent after loss of contact with Team Alpha furthers my point about the adaptability of these species.

Although I am interested to see what becomes of the human race. However, I make it clear that I recognise them as nothing more than refined brutes.

OK, so I've been think about this idea for a while. This chapter is just the introduction to the main final chapter regarding the council observations on human behaviourism. Please tell me what you think!


	2. Day 1: Berlin

**Citadel Interspecies Anthropological Committee**

 **First Contact, Home-world Scenario**

 **Humankind, Earth**

 **Log of Dr. Sona T'rom, Presidium**

Our trip to Earth was very hectic. Barring the army of reporters from the Citadel wanting information about the newly discovered civilisation, a malfunction in the reactor of one of our ships forced us to dock near an Elcor colony until repairs could be made. Even though a small mass effect field was present, the conditions on that colony were far too much a strain on us. I believe the Salarian doctor was perturbed most of all. Not quite sure about Agus, however. I imagined Turians have a stronger tolerance for high-gravity environments. Though, this one particularly isn't too pleased about our mission, so I'm not sure whether that frown on his face stems from displeasure or physical pain. What had made this trip even more disturbing is that the Elcor in charge of our repairs, although a decent creature, was obviously trying to ask us about the Humans. I swear to God, the small gravity-plagued room coupled with a near hour-long back-and-forth conversation with that Elcor would've been the death of me had the malfunction not been fixed.

Thankfully, we then left to Arcturus. The famed space station was seen briefly as we passed by it to the relay. Agus made a comment on its inferiority to the Asari Athame Station orbiting Thessia. The Salarian, whose name I still had not learned to pronounce properly, was being treated for gravity sickness from the Elcor colony. In about an hour we had passed the relay and entered Sol. The first, and more obvious conclusion that can be made is that their system is large. Much larger than many others. According to the Alliance-supplied data, there are 4 giants and 4 terrestrial planets orbiting their Sun, alongside a belt of Astroids and countless moons. There are multiple colonies across many celestial bodies in Sol, most of whom have populations in the millions. Earth, however, is the main homeworld. Its population, according to the data provided, is unimaginably massive, up to 11 billion souls. That eclipses both Thessia and Palaven combined. It took a decent amount of time, but we finally arrived after passing the red arid planet Mars. The Alliance refused to comment for 'security reasons' on the nature of the planet's history. Whilst suspicious, our job isn't to provoke a galactic incident, it's to gain the information to prevent one.

In any case, Earth is blue. Very blue indeed. I had imagined that it would be much more arid for some reason. It's nearly 2/3rds water, apparently. Earth life would be fascinating to study, in this case. Unlike Thessia, Palaven, or Kahje, a single look at Earth shows great diversity. A large desert strip covers a very large northern portion of one continent, whilst rocky mountainous regions cover huge strips of another. Incredibly dense jungles seem to lie within several islands and one jungle strip across a southern continent stretches for hundreds of kilometers. I am told by the Alliance VI that this is known as the 'Amazon'. Other than that, the rest of Earth is mostly grasslands and forests with two large ice caps at the poles.

We were told by the VI that we were going to spend our first day in the city of Berlin in one of the nation states Earth is divided into. This one is called the 'European Union'.

"It's a spiralling city and the heart of Europe's economy" said the VI. Myths and histories of its founding were explained by the computer, noting most of the city's customs and traditions.

"The city is the centre of the European member state of Germany. As such, most of the population speaks German with some sizeable French and Polish minorities."

The VI continued an hour long explanation whilst Agus was basically falling asleep. An anthropologist who can't stand history? That's one for the books.

Though, there was something slightly off, the computer detailed much of the city's cultural, economic and political achievement, but the history sort of temporarily stopped at the end of the 19th century.

"After the unification of Germany under Otto Bismark, one of the greatest political and military minds of the era, Germany experienced great prosperity up until some disturbances occurred in the first half of the 20th century. By the start of the 21st century, Germany had fully been integrated into the European Union, and a long prosperous road was being built by this new membership-."

Agus, for whatever reason, interjected. Waking up from his daze, he jumped, accusingly eying the computer, and said:

"What disturbances?"

"Nothing of consequence that would interest you, Mr. Agus"

"We decide what's of consequence. What were the disturbances?"

"I'm sorry, but that information is classified." The VI finally admitted.

Agus scoffed and sat down, with a frown that seemed to grow exponentially.

"You're seriously upset at this? During first contact with the Turians you wouldn't even tell us what's the name of your home-planet." All men are children.

Agus refuses to talk to me, and remains silent throughout the entire trip. Though, I have to agree, a missing century from an otherwise extremely detailed report is suspicious. In any case, it's not worth another incident. The Salarian was furiously taking notes from the VI on his omnitool, despite his fatigue. His three-fingered hands were moving at unimaginable speeds, taking what seemed to be gigabytes of notes in seconds. Obviously, curiosity hastens recovery.

We later landed on Earth after some slight turbulence from artificial rings. The Turian began asking the VI about the rings, believing it to be some form of highly advanced defense system. The computer, surprisingly, replied that although some nuclear-capable satellite were built during the period of a Cold War in Earth's history in secrecy and still are technically operate, most of the orbiting material were bootstrap rocket developments and satellites from the past two centuries of space-travel.

Which is another thing that caught our attention.

"I'm sorry, but two centuries of space-travel?"

"Yes. Humanity became a spacefaring civilisation only two centuries ago."

I exchanged some concerned looks with the Salarian. There was something wrong with their level of technological advancements. Turian level spaceships from only two centuries of space-flight is too suspicious to ignore.

As we waited, the door to our ship opened. The Berlin International Spaceport announced something, which later lead to everyone turning their eyes on us.

"Achtung! Begrüßen die ersten aliens auf der Erde"

Embarrassingly enough, my universal translator malfunctioned for a minute or two, and I didn't exactly understand what they had said. I forgot to ask the Salarian or Agus later.

The spaceport was very different from any traditional port we've seen. The architecture didn't reflect the modernist designs all citadel races incorporated. Rather, the entire port was so carefully dressed with specially carved rocks that gave off a classical aura of sophistication. Columns of marble graced the entire port, which, in all honesty, was rather big compared to most non-Citadel race ports. Naturally, we were met with large stares by the local population. A young male, with a strange blonde hair colour, and unnaturally light eyes approached us.

"Guten tag, ich bin-ZZZSSSTTT-your guide for your visit to Earth's European Union. I am pleased to meet you."

After lazy introductions marked with me repeatedly hitting my omnitool to get it to start working properly, we existed the finely designed port carrying with us an army of stares from the local population. Frightened kids who clinger to their mothers, old-wrinkly women muttering something incomprehensible to each other, and genuinely curious youths were a natural response.

"Please don't be disturbed by the people here. We are a very open-minded race, but you have to understand that you're still the first alien life-forms most people have ever seen."

Berlin was beautiful. There were tall skyscrapers in the distance, but most of the buildings were relatively short and wide, decorated with an odd but highly refined style. Extremely carefully made windows and a tonne of alleyways gave the city an un-ignorable feel of culture which, sadly, many cities of citadel races are beginning to lose in my opinion. Even the streets and sidewalks were paved with a mosaic of patterns.

"What's that supposed to be?"

"It's the Brandenburg Gate, sir Agus."

"And?"

"It's one of Germany's most famous landmarks. The Brandenburg gate was built about six centuries ago, actually, to honour and represent peace in Europe. However, later wars and battles made it also embody victory, European unity, and the long spike-laden road that we had to cross to achieve it."

"Wait, stop. What's that?"

"The Reichstag. The main head of the German government in the EU." I noticed that the young man, whose name from what I can gather is Victor, had been unable to pronounce the Salarian's full name, so he just avoided it apparently. Smart, but still transparent. In any case, I was quite enjoying myself. All the monuments we passed and the century-old architecture of the cities here show us a pre-spaceflight city design that is just completely lost on so many civilisations. You could just feel the complexity behind ever slab of rock, behind every arch and column. It's quite obvious that architecture for humans bares great importance. On Thessia, barring the Temple of Athame, which, even then, was renovated so much that it lost its original design, very few pre-FTL monuments exist.

"I'd like to ask a question, Mr. Victor. What exactly was up with Berlin during the 20th century?"

Oh dear lord.

"Well, you see, Berlin was experiencing turmoil like the rest of Europe during the 20th century, it was an economic, political and social thing that the world took a while to recover from."

"What was that turmoil?"

"It's quite a long story, Sir. Nothing that would interest you, I guess."

Agus grunted and stayed quiet after that. It's obvious there's something they don't want us to know about, but there's no need to keep picking at wounds from Shanxi.

We later arrived at a musical institution known as a 'concert-house. There, we were going to listen to some of Earth's musical history. This event should help us evaluate the musical taste of the humans. Most species, particularly that of the Volus or the Hanar, have no evolutionary or societal need or interest in this form of artistic refinement.

The massive circular building, dressed with countless velvet-coloured chairs and a centre stage seems reminiscent of the Salarian music house designs. However, the humans incorporated their own 'classical' touch to it, as the guide referred to this architectural style.

"Please rise for the European anthem"

What we had expected to be a short restatement of the nations' ideals was instead a long extremely well constructed symphony which the Salarian noted as: "one of the most mathematically intriguing musical pieces I have ever encountered".

Several pieces followed. Brahms, Wagner, Von Weber, Chopin and countless others. A soft draft of music waved through the air, and we, at least, me and the Salarian, had our omni-tool covered arms held up to record to concertos and symphonies we heard.

"Mr. Victor, pardon me, but what exactly is the name of that first piece?"

"It's called Beethoven's Ode to Joy. It is part of his 9th Symphony."

"I see, it's quite beautiful."

"Pardon me for inquiring, but do you Salarians have any parallel to this type of music?"

"Surprisingly" the Salarian said, "Yes we do. Salarian music is almost entirely composed of something akin to those pieces we just heard. It's astonishing the similarities between human music"

Victor laughed quietly for a moment.

"Trust me, human music is very diverse. You'll soon find that out."

"Ladies and gentlemen, as tribute to the history of the Punk and Rock and Roll era, we will now move on from the veil of classism to Britain's own The Rolling Stones'."

What shrieks! Unimaginably horrid noises came from a piece about some youth's failed attainment of sexual gratification, otherwise known as 'satisfaction'. Rather disgusting if you ask me. The Salarian's enchantment with human music was completely shattered. He simply stared at the men playing the instruments with a wide-opened mouth. I must admit, after listening to what I had to, I placed a biotic barrier near my ears and simply recorded the song to listen and analyse it later at a much lower volume and a bottle of aspirin.

"That was amazing!" Yelled Agus. "It's almost as good as _Minae's Frontier_ "

"Minae's Frontier?"

"It's a popular song back on Palaven, the Turian homeworld. Much of the whole 'harmonic' thing you humans have going on with the same-key chords in classical isn't particularly well-liked by most Turians. Forgive me saying so Siyath, but Salarian music make most Turians puke."

Siyath! Thank the Goddess Agus found a way to shorten that ungodly long Salarian name.

"Well, we have a saying here on Earth; to each his own." Interjected Victor. "In any case, there's still a lot more to human music. Oriental and non-European are also radically different from what you may hear here, so you'll encounter immense diversity in your trips to Earth."

"I see, so humans are comfortable with multiple styles of music?" I asked

"Well, most people typically have preferences, but generally humans have a very wide and diverse array of musical pleasure to offer. We aren't particularly comfortably only with one type or one genre."

To be fair, even in that regards, humans were musically similar to Asari. Siyath had a biological excuse to be disturbed. Salarian physiology made it difficult for them to appreciate that type of music. I, on the other hand, just find it unbearable. It's no better than the sounds of brute beasts.

As we left the music-house, having listened to several pieces by a 'Queen' and his contemporaries, we found a crowd had lined up.

"Never again! Don't deny our history!" The crowd yelled. Obviously, Victor looked flustered. A few minutes afterwards and a large police-force, similar to C-Sec but much more authoritative, took the few dozen people outside the concert hall into large vans and drove off despite their protests. No explanation, nothing. It happened to quick to truly process. Except, of course, for Siyath.

An unintelligible 'Hail' someone was shouted halfway through that semi-comedic event that made every human stare with an expression of absolute fear and dread, even the protestors. The Turian picked up on it, quickly placing his hand over his holster in case of any unseen hostilities that the humans picked up on.

The rogue element who shouted that was quickly identified and, almost immediately, he managed to get out his chant one more time before he was sedated and thrown into a separate van from the other protesters. This all took place in a time-span of less than a minute or two. Admittedly, that was impressive for any police-force. Authoritarian in some aspects, but impressive.

What was it that the man had said?

"Heil Hitler!"


	3. Day 2: Tokyo, Part One

"I had known these humans had been hiding something"

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but when we first made contact with you people you had just come out of the unification wars, right?"

"We didn't lie about it at least!"

I had been engaging in conversation with this man for far too long. His insistence of demonising the humans has grown far too troublesome to merely ignore, and jeopardised his position as a Citadel Research Council associate.

"Agus, I will be forced to report you if you keep this up! We don't want a diplomatic incident!"

It was at the hight of my anger that the Salarian doctor, Siyath, interrupted.

"It seems they have a cache of prothean technology on Mars that they neglected to tell us about"

Before Agus offered to call the council to declare war again, I had to interrupt him.

"They're probably keeping it a secret from the rest of the galaxy until they see how Citadel negotiations work out. I'm sure the council is well-informed of the matter?"

"It seems so.."

Dejected, the defeated Turian decided to continue our little war via infrequent guerrilla attacks that consisted of glares and occasional grumbles.

"Listen, so long as the ruling party does not participate in genocide, we cannot act on what happened two centuries ago."

"Still, the fact that some of the humans were willing to yell autocratic slogans at us seems to indicate the beliefs are still popular."

"Probably not" Said the Salarian. "It seems there are pockets of neo-racist groups on Earth, even though the concept of 'race' had largely been ignored due to increased globalisation in the past two centuries. They're hardly a threat."

"Still, have you heard of a single Citadel species that had committed large-scale genocide against its own people?" Retorted Agus.

"The Unification-"

"Not at this scale. We're talking over a hundred million people, that eclipses even the Rachni Wars!"

Admittedly, loath as I am to admit it, he had a point. That large a death toll is surprising. However, there had to be an explanation.

"Likely explanation is wars were pre-spaceflight. Insufficient technology to sufficiently mount medical ventures or arm soldiers. Humans reached advanced levels of civilisation prior to achieving space-flight so large wars were fought on land without adequate technology to support them. The more technology advances, the easier it is to prevent casualties disease or lack of armour. If anything, medical technology and shielding advances faster than offensive weaponry."

"Siyath, think about it for a second. Have you heard of a single pre-Eezo series of wars that exceeded a tenth of a billion?"

"The Krogan Civil Wars took half a billion, I believe." Siyath replied

"Exactly! We're dealing with a species as bad as the Krogan! These human 'world' wars took place before the advent of nuclear weaponry from my understanding. Had they had fission bombs, dont you think they would've made good use of them"

"They have them now, and they haven't so far, not that we know of. They must've moved past this phase" I interjected.

"Can a Varren resist Pyjak meat? You can't move past your nature."

"Agus, you're borderline racist. If word of this gets out you may not only endanger your position in the Council but this entire mission as well."

That seemed to shut him up. I had decided to freshen up in a human bathroom. Humans seemed to enjoy taking long baths. Unlike Asari, humans sweat in order to cool their bodies. As such, they seem to worship cleanliness. The city we had been to seemed to be one of the cleanest places I've seen in my life, almost to the same level as the Citadel.

What had fascinated me most, however, was the human use of scented candles and various soaps and bath salts. We had been told they should be safe for Asari or Turian use, but had been warned to ensure Siyath avoids it, as it may cause irritation to Salarian physiology. Admittedly, this was something I would have to sneak back to Thessia. My daughters adore this kind of things, I'm sure they'd appreciate an alien bath salt that they'll see before any other Asari in the galaxy.

After being thoroughly cleaned, I embarked on the airport. Humans, for whatever reason, still do not utilise element zero technology in air travel. Apparently, having evolved with a significant lacking of this material, they found cheaper alternatives. Considering the abundance of Eezo in the galaxy, it's likely this cost-effective alternative is only cheaper for societies with significant lacking of the substance, much like human ones.

The next city we had been introduced to was a metropolis in the centre of an island nation known as 'Japan'. In the original language, this translates to "land of the rising sun."

Which, of course, was something which was unfathomable for us. The language they spoke there was completely different from that spoken in Berlin! We had been warned, multiple times, that Earth featured an incredibly wide and diverse linguistic history, easily eclipsing the globalised and universal languages spoken in Citadel Space. However, for a globalised race to speak multiple languages to such an extent that entire nations have lingua franca is practically unheard of!

"Welcome to Tokyo. My name is Hibiki, I shall be your guide." He was dressed in a rather…flowing gown, perhaps the humans had intended to show us the cultural diversity that was prevalent on Earth with individual displays of each nations' cultures?

"In Japan it is customary to bow as a sign of respect."

Siyath and Agus both attempted to imitate the young man carefully. I, on the other hand, was a bit too distracted with the large building outside to pay much attention.

"I'm sorry, but what's that giant building over there? It seems rather ancient."

Admittedly, I've grown fascinated with human architecture. It was very radically different from that of Berlin. The roofs in particular were the most visually impressive, parabolically leaning with various coloured bricks. They don't seem to be made of concrete, but rather of some native Terran substance. Surrounding this sight was were large trees, many of them tinted a pinkish hue, that made the entire area seem more of a small city than a building.

"That would be the Imperial Palace, ma'am"

"The Imperial palace?" Siyath had stressed 'Imperial'. We had been assured most nations on Earth had a very similar political structure. Perhaps this was an outlier?

"Yes, it houses the Emperor of Japan. I understand our guides in Berlin had been inattentive to some historic information regarding the world wars. Whilst we understand the need to present a proper image of humans, we understand we were wrong in keeping this from you. We humbly apologise."

The man bowed, his head firmly fixed at the ground. Even Agus found this humility refreshing to the point where he felt ashamed to look down at the man. I guess even the Turians and humans share the mannerism of associating 'looking down' with superiority.

"In that case, I'd be interested to know about your emperor. How does your political structure work?" Asked Siyath.

"The Emperor of Japan is the figurehead of the Japanese people. Initially, the position of 'emporer' was an autocratic position from the Meiji era three centuries ago. However, after the second world war, which I'm sure you've been acquainted with, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Emperor was forced to relinquish his rule in favour of a more democratic government. Yet,…"

The man kept on talking, but there was something that kept replaying in my head over and over again.

"atomic bombings…"

Shit.

"I'm sorry, but atomic bombings?" Asked Agus. He seemed to have a genuine tint of respect in his voice. It's true what they say, if you bow down to a Turian you can get him to do whatever you want.

"Unfortunately, towards the end of the second world war, two nuclear bombs were detonated over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with a total death toll of about a quarter of a million. Although the bombs resulted in large casualties, they were not used again. The world war marks the one and only time in history these bombs were ever used."

"Has nuclear war ever seemed likely?"

"Yes, various times. Some former nation-states such as the U.S.S.R, The United States, Pakistan, India, The DPRK, and several others had come close to nuclear encounters in the past. However, nowadays the system alliance maintains complete control of all nuclear missile silos and submarines, and no country is allowed individual nuclear WMD's."

I swore I heard Agus mutter "that's acceptable", but out of shock at this new character revelation, I decided to avoid calling him out on it.

"The Emperor has agreed to grant you an audience, if you wish. It is a chance for you to experience Japanese culture in its purest."

Just as we were preparing to exit, I noticed a crowd of people being pulled away by a police force, one of them was waving around a giant portrayed of a mushroom cloud.

Something was unnervingly wrong with this planet. I don't know what, but I feel as if we're being mislead. Hopefully, the audience with the Emperor will sooth my concerns.


End file.
